Dunn expected the person eyeing them to fire in retaliation, so he was prepared for the attack. The projectile missed him, burying itself in the soil.

Noticing his warning, the soldier panicked. His useless actions squandered the precious time Dunn's attack provided him.

Instead of jumping forward and trying to put some distance between his assailant, he turned around, getting stuck between the tree trunk and the corrupted.

His following actions were hilarious. He ignored the corrupted and fumbled with his weapon.

"That guy is as worthless as shit," Jade said.

Dunn rolled his eyes. "When their team leader arrives, please stay silent and let me do the talking."

"Why should I follow your lead?" she asked, displeased.

Dunn tactfully remained silent. If he let Jade have her way, it wouldn't be surprising if they came to blows with the other party.

He placed his attention back on the unfolding farce.

The soldier slowly lifted his head, quivering with fear; to notice the escaping corrupted. He sagged against the tree, forgetting to fire at the corrupted's exposed back.

Dunn and Jade exchanged an incredulous look.

"Worthless," he agreed.

The soldier's performance was deplorable. Dunn's first impression wasn't as bad as Jade's. For a recruit, keeping track of his surroundings might be difficult, but there was no excuse for his performance after identifying the enemy.

"It is escaping. Are you going to let it go?"

"Why bother?" Dunn gave a nonchalant shrug. "I helped him, didn't I?"

"I think capturing it would leave a bigger impression."

"Maybe." He tossed a blade into the air and caught it. "The corrupted is a human, so it shouldn't be too much trouble."

He studied the actions of the escaping humanoid. For whatever reason, it changed the direction it was fleeing in three times.

"I don't think you are fast enough to catch up."

Dunn grinned. "Why do I need to be?"

He started running after it. "I'll take the fight elsewhere."

**********

Cloneeye cursed the human. It hoped to kill everyone and get away before the soldiers noticed. If it could escape without being seen, the humans would have a hard time finding it.

Getting discovered made its plan go down the drain. With a sinking heart, it noticed the squad had two evolved. They were faster than their comrades and quickly moved in its direction.

If it did not lose the tail, they could coordinate with the other squads in the vicinity and box it in.

Getting tied up in a fight wouldn't prove to be of any advantage. Even if it could hold on for some time, reinforcements would keep arriving, eventually killing it.

Disregarding the trembling soldier, it ran. Other squads moved in its direction, forcing it to switch paths. The evolved humans occupied most of its attention, making it miss the blade till the weapon was an inch from its face.

Jerking its head, it attempted to dodge the attack, but the decision proved to be a mistake. The approaching blade sped up while Cloneeye slowed down.

Its eyes widened in shock and surprise. Letting out a guttural roar, it exerted every inch of its power while twisting its body. The same thing happened, but its efforts paid off. It surpassed some kind of invisible boundary as the dagger's acceleration was a bit lower than Cloneeye's movement speed.

It managed to preserve its life at the cost of the right eye and half of the ear. The dagger pierced through a part of its eye and sliced off the top of its ear. Without slowing down, it continued flying forwards, stabbing into the tree with a resounding thud.

The extreme movement and the dagger's impact made it lose balance. Blindly swinging its arms, it grabbed onto a branch and broke the fall.

The overpowering smell of the Rift told it everything it needed to know about the assailant. It regarded the attacker with a mix of fear and fury.

In its haste to escape, it stopped paying attention to the humans who escaped from the Rift, never expecting one of them to almost kill it in a single blow.

Getting injured by its prey enraged Cloneeye. It was already losing its mind due to the desire to consume him. The injury made the situation worse.

When it noticed the human's expression morphing from a dumbfounded one to an amused one, it popped a vein in anger. Any thoughts of escaping were tossed to the back of its mind.

Equipping its gauntlets, it jumped at its assailant, snarling in fury.

**********

Dunn was stunned when he noticed his attack land. Though it was a welcome outcome, that was not how he had foreseen the fight.

Anticipation welled up within Dunn.

Inside the Rift, he and his friends were the weakest creatures. To compete with the evolved, they had to get stronger in other ways. They honed their bodies, instincts, techniques, guile, and anything that provided them with a small advantage in fights.

Even after all of their efforts, every fight was brutal and hard-fought, with most of them ending in their escape.

At that point, Dunn was thirsting for one clean victory, and seeing such a weak and stupid corrupted whet his appetite for victory.

It pushed off the branch with enough force to shake the entire tree. Using its gauntlets as a shield, it smashed through the branches and rushed towards Dunn.

Dunn readied himself for the corrupted's charge when the runes on its body lit up, unleashing a bolt of lightning.

Damn. That thing has enough presence of mind to unleash an innate spell, he thought.

The lightning bolt was the simplest lightning element spell and it briefly paralyzed the target. As the spell was too quick to evade, Dunn jumped back.

A second later, the corrupted smashed into his previous location. The collision released a blast of air, sending Dunn crashing into a tree. Dust clouded his vision, blocking the corrupted from sight.

He ducked not a moment too soon, and a gauntlet smashed into the previous location of his head. It created a hole a quarter of the tree's width.

Dunn whistled. "Wow! You are strong!"

It growled, smashing its gauntlets in a bid to pulverize him. The paralysis did not wear off completely, but Dunn gained enough control to dodge the attack.

"Keep trying. I am sure you can hit me."

He ducked against its next attack, rolling out of the way and putting some distance between them.

"Did you believe that?" Dunn laughed.

To his surprise, the corrupted did not continue its attack. Dunn saw the struggle on its face and knew it was trying to get back in control of its emotions.

He drew his other blade and charged at the corrupted. If it regained control, the fight would become increasingly dangerous.

After they started exchanging blows, the fight entered a strange stalemate. The corrupted had the advantage in strength and speed. Nonetheless, Dunn controlled the pace of the battle.

Their fight was an exchange between strength and skill. He never directly clashed against the corrupted, nor did he counterattack. He focused his attention on deflecting its attacks and waited for the right moment to begin his counterattack.

The corrupted got furious as the fight continued without resolution. It howled in fury, letting go of its defense and focusing on offense.

Dunn smiled as it was the moment he was waiting for.